Please continue to spread the word to others that may wish to receive
this information that they will need to access the ARRL members only
web site. After becoming a member they must edit their profile and
elect to receive bulletins from the Section Manager and Director. If
you are already a member on the ARRL site (http://www.arrl.org) from
the &quot;Members Only&quot; box click on &quot;members data page&quot;
and then under email notification options set ?Division/Section
notices&quot; to YES. You will receive the next bulletin sent. Past
Bulletins are available at http://www.hudson.arrl.org

School Club Roundup set for Oct 16-20 ************* See article
blow……..

Other current office holders in the five affected divisions filed valid
petitions by the August 18 deadline to run for new three-year terms.
The Ethics and Elections Committee has declared these unopposed
candidates elected: In the Central Division, Director Dick Isely,
W9GIG, and Vice Director Howard Huntington, K9KM; in the Hudson
Division, Director Frank Fallon, N2FF, and Vice Director Joyce
Birmingham, KA2ANF; in the New England Division, Director Tom Frenaye,
K1KI, and Vice Director Mike Raisbeck, K1TWF; in the Northwestern
Division, Director Jim Fenstermaker, K9JF, and Vice Director Bill
Sawders, K7ZM, and in the Roanoke Division, Director Dennis Bodson,
W4PWF.

On a similar note, NLI Section Manager, George Tranos, N2GA has decided
not to seek another two year term. He is retiring effective January 1,
2007. Taking his place will be Tom Carrubba, KA2D, who filed a
petition for election as NLI SM in early September. When no one else
filed Tom was declared elected. Thanks to George for a job well done
for almost ten years. I know that I and a lot of others in the section
appreciate the fine job you have done. Once again thanks for taking
this leadership position at a point where there was a great deal of
turmoil within the section. To Tom we wish the best of luck in 2007
and the following years.

In the process of rearranging job responsibilities Tom has given up the
Division webmaster position that he has filled so well for more than
five years. We have a new hosting arrangement and a new Division
Webmaster in George Sabbi, KC2GLG. Thanks to both Tom and George for
jobs well done.

Clubs please send in your requests for ads in the 2007 Awards Journal.
Forms will to be available on the division page soon. ALL checks made
out to BARA for the 200 event. THANKS.

The Bergen Amateur Radio Association will host the 2006 Hudson Division
Awards Dinner at the Holiday Inn in Saddle Brook, New Jersey on a
Saturday night, November 11th, at 7 PM. We will have a very good view
from the 12 floor. Some attendees may want to work a little HT DX.
The location is at the junction of Route 80 and the Garden State
Parkway. Ticket price will be the same as last year, $48 per person.
Please join us to honor all those receiving a division award. Ticket
and ad applications will soon be available on the division web site.
BARA President Tony Izzo, K2AMI promises that tickets will be sold at
the BARA Hamfest. No tickets will be sold the night of the event.
Ticket sales will close October 27th. Please don’t leave it to the
last minute!

The awards will be presented at the 2006 Hudson Division Awards Dinner
hosted by the Bergen Amateur Radio Association at the Holiday Inn in
Saddle Brook New Jersey just off Route 80 on Saturday night, November
11th at 7 PM. Please attend to help us honor these outstanding
Amateur Radio operators who truly make us all proud to be part of the
Amateur Radio Service. Tickets are $48 and an application form is
available at http://www.bara.org/

We hope to see you there.

===> BPL UPDATE

League Pledges to Pursue BPL Interference Complaints, Mulling Appeal
(Sep 22, 2006) — The League has vowed to maintain pressure on the FCC
to act on complaints of broadband over power line (BPL) interference to
Amateur Radio. The FCC’s unanimous adoption August 3 of a Memorandum
Opinion and Order (MO&O) in response to 15 petitions for
reconsideration of the Commission’s BPL rules triggered the ARRL
response. The MO&O goes into effect today, Friday, September 22, 2006.
See http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/09/22/101/?nc=1 for full
details.

Note: The Manassas, VA BPL site uses Maine.net hardware which is the
same company that LIPA has selected for their test on Long Island.
This despite our BPL team warning them about the perils of this
hardware. We expect a rough ride with the LIPA test.

NEWINGTON, CT, Aug 3, 2006 — The ARRL has told the FCC it has found a
radio interference report filed on behalf of the Manassas, Virginia,
BPL system “flawed in numerous respects.” The League responded this
week to a July 17 letter and BPL interference study the FCC mandated
following repeated complaints from local radio amateurs.

“ARRL objects to the report because it is based on improper engineering
practice and contrary to the instructions provided by your office in
your letter dated June 16, 2006,” ARRL General Counsel Chris Imlay,
W3KD, wrote FCC Spectrum Enforcement Division Chief Joseph Casey on
August 2. In June, Casey had ordered the City of Manassas and BPL
provider COMTek to investigate complaints from several Manassas radio
amateurs of BPL interference to their mobile operations and report back
to the Commission on their findings. The League, and local amateurs,
contend the BPL system is still causing harmful interference to Amateur
Radio operations, despite the clean bill of health the engineering
report purports to present.

“It did so both before and after the tests conducted by COMTek; and
there is no doubt at all that the interference is from the COMTek BPL
system operated in the City of Manassas and not from any other source.”
The League reiterated its demand that the system be shut down
immediately.

“Unless the Enforcement Bureau is willing to do that, you are going to
have to send Commission staff to observe this interference and conduct
their own measurements in the presence of both COMTek and the local
Amateur Radio operators who are receiving the interference,” Imlay
asserted. Manassas radio amateurs who have complained to the FCC about
the BPL interference also have suggested that the FCC must investigate
the problem firsthand.

The League maintained that COMTek “has filed incorrect and misleading
reports” and has “manipulated the BPL system to show false readings.”
In particular, the ARRL — and local radio amateurs — suggest that the
BPL system was not operating at peak user loading during the testing,
as the FCC had ordered. Either that or COMTek and BPL equipment
manufacturer Main.net adjusted system power levels downward for the
testing, Imlay told the FCC.

In its August 2 letter, the ARRL pointed out that one complainant,
Dwight Agnew, AI4II, never stated during a post-testing demonstration
for Agnew and other Manassas radio amateurs that the BPL equipment was
no longer causing harmful interference. The League said “it is beyond
dispute” that BPL interferes with Amateur Radio, and it noted a 2005
Federal Computer Week article that quoted COMTek Vice President Walt
Adams conceding the point.

“The Commission is going to have to investigate this matter itself,
without advance notice to COMTek or the City, so that the system is not
powered down or otherwise manipulated to show other than peak loading
characteristics at the power levels typically used in Manassas,” the
ARRL stated. The League said it’s clear that the FCC can’t rely on
reports from consultants hired by the system’s operators while
excluding the victims of the interference.

“It is obvious that COMTek and Main.net have done testing in various
ways each time they go to the system,” the ARRL said. “Their findings
are not in agreement with each other.”

The League concluded that in its dealings with the Manassas BPL system,
the FCC has “completely ignored” Part 15 rules requiring a BPL
operator, upon learning of harmful interference, to investigate and
resolve it successfully within a reasonable time. “The recent
submission of COMTek and the City have produced no resolution of the
interference at all,” ARRL said. “Rather, COMTek and the City have
shown a complete inability, and now, by their denials, the
unwillingness, to resolve the interference.”

==> BPL IN THE HUDSON DIVISION

Do you have access to a LIPA grid map. Please contact n2ff@arrl.org orn2stu@arrl.net if you do. We are attempting to locate the exact site
of the LIPA BPL test in order to take noise measurements before their
test begins. LIPA has NOT publicly disclosed their site but has
specified the grid location.
Please help if you can. Your identity will be protected.

As we announced last month we are still waiting for the
&quot;official&quot; announcement that LIPA has chosen Maine.net as
their BPL hardware supplier. BPL trade journals are reporting that LIPA
has chosen Maine.net as their equipment provider for the
Copiague/Hauppauge test.

This is NOT good news. This is the same company that has provided
equipment for the Manassas BPL implementation. At every test deployment
where DS2 or Main.net architectures are used, and therefore where HF is
used, there have been complaints. That is a telling statistic, given
that BPL systems have not been deployed extensively and where there are
650,000 Amateur Radio licensees of the FCC. My first reaction, on
hearing that LIPA had picked Main.net, was to ask myself if LIPA staff
have lost their senses?

Main.net sent its US CEO to HQ to talk about interference, and although
they agreed that we needed to meet in Manassas, that never happened.
Apparently the meeting was just for show and intended mostly to buy
some time. Meanwhile problems continue in Manassas.

Remember, please, that Amateur Radio operators are not opposed to BPL
per se. They are opposed to interference and to the rules the FCC
adopted in 2004 that “did not do anything to prevent inevitable,
harmful interference from BPL systems” that employ HF spectrum on
unshielded, overhead medium-voltage lines.

I have asked ARRL Assistant Director, Richard Rosner, N2STU, to chair
our Division BPL effort. Rich is a PE, an electrical engineer and a
master electrician who will coordinate the effort to monitor the
various test sites in the division and lead the teams which will work
with the various utilities to make sure they deploy systems that are
ham friendly. While we are not out to stop BPL in its tracks, we do
want utilities to employ a technology that is not going to pollute our
precious RF spectrum. If you think you can be of assistance in
monitoring interference in the project area, contact Rich atn2stu@arrl.net

The September 2006 award goes to the East Coast DX Association and
their editor George Sabbi, KC2GLG for the October issue of &quot;The
ECDXA Pileup.&quot; The club has recently been reactivated and has
turned out a number of nice newsletters in the past few months. Runner
up was a past winner the RVWARS &quot;Rip’s Report&quot; in November
2005. Their September 2006 newsletter had some real &quot;winner&quot;
pictures from the club’s August picnic.

Congratulations editors and thanks for making you club a much more
interesting one.

===> Apologetic Radio Jammer Jack Gerritsen Gets Seven Years, Fines
(Sep 19, 2006) — It was a day many radio amateurs in Southern
California had been anticipating for a long time. On September 18, US
District Court Judge R. Gary Klausner sentenced convicted radio jammer
Jack Gerritsen, now 70, to seven years imprisonment and imposed $15,225
in fines on six counts — one a felony — that included willful and
malicious interference with radio communications and transmitting
without a license. Before sentencing, Gerritsen apologized to the
federal government, the FCC and the local Amateur Radio community,
which had endured the brunt of Gerritsen’s on-air tirades and outright
jamming. “I’m sorry, and I apologize to everyone here,” Gerritsen told
those in the courtroom, which included more than a dozen radio amateurs
and Gerritsen’s family members. Gerritsen’s contrition did nothing to
convince Klausner toward leniency.

The next Essex County, NJ EmComm/SKYWARN Net is Tuesday Oct 3rd, 2006
8:00 pm ? 9:00 pm. The new time for the EC_EmComm Net will be 8:00 PM
on the first Tuesday of the month. It will be on the WA2JSB 146.415 OEM
repeater.
All are welcome to check in. This includes Skywarn, Red Cross, ARES,
RACES etc. Any one interested in emergency communications,
regardless of membership (or lack there of) please feel free to do so.
This is not intended to be an exclusive net de Mike Hartmann,
WA2QIC

Your friends, neighbors and community need your eyes and ears as well
as your on-air participation. The National Weather Service?s SKYWARN
Program is always in need of active participation by both the general
community as well as licensed Amateur Radio operators. Amateur Radio
operators bring a unique ability to SKYWARN work. By having methods of
communication that are reliable and functional even when landline or
cellular phones are inoperable, they can observe and report severe
weather to the NWS under almost any circumstance.
SKYWARN affords not only you, but also your entire family the ability
to jointly participate in a proactive, community service that is also
fun and easy to do. You are able to positively contribute to your
community’s welfare by helping to protect both life and property.
SKYWARN is also somewhat unique in that it is a before-the-storm as
well as during and after-the-storm activity. SKYWARN activation can
happen as far in advance of the event as 4-6 hours, or with as little
as no advance warning. (Note: to be aware of severe weather and SKYWARN
activations in our area, one of the best, if not most reliable methods
is by having a properly programmed, always on stand-by, with a working
battery backup, NOAA All Hazards Radio. (FYI -there are several NOAA
All Hazards Radio Transmitters located throughout the ARRL’s Hudson
Division, check for your local frequency (and an alternate) here:www.erh.noaa.gov/er/okx/wxradio.html
Training to learn the specific things to watch for is not only easy to
do, it is also locally available to you, as SKYWARN Training sessions
are usually done throughout the ARRL’s Hudson Division in the Spring of
each year. While Spring might seem far off at this time, it is never to
soon to plan to attend a training class when it comes to your area.
Even without having the formal training (the NWS Upton, NY recommends
that all people interested in weather, particularly severe weather,
take the 2-3 hour SKYWARN class at least once every 3 years to stay up
to date on new weather technology and observation techniques) there are
things you can observe and report that could help the NWS in its
issuance of severe weather Advisories, Watches and/or Warnings. In
fact, most local SKYWARN Nets clearly define during the Net the
specific types of observations to be done and give over-the-air
guidelines for what things they are looking for as from the field
reports based on the nature of the weather event that is taking place.

While severe weather is not necessarily an everyday occurrence in the
ARRL’s Hudson Division (and aren’t we glad that it isn’t) the 2006
season, while it might seem like it was somewhat uneventful, has never
the less had many Severe Thunderstorms Warnings, along with some Flash
Flood Warnings, as well as there being 2 confirmed tornado touchdowns
(Rockland/Westchester Counties (July 12, 2006) and Nassau/Suffolk
Counties (August 25, 2006) (there was also a Tornado Warning issued for
Bergen County on August 25 and this was the same system that later
generated an F0 tornado as it moved across both Nassau and Suffolk
Counties on Long Island). While current Doppler Radar technology can
indicate the possible presence of rotation within a storm, that could
lead to the formation of a funnel cloud or even a tornado (one of the
things learned in SKYWARN training is the difference between a funnel
cloud and a tornado) it is only the eyes of a Spotter in the field than
can confirm the actual presence of a tornado on the ground as it is
happening. The NWS and your Community need you to be there to report
these, as well as other severe weather conditions.
To learn more about SKYWARN and how you and your entire family can take
an active part, there are several websites available such as the
BergenSkywarn website at: www.bergenskywarn.org and the NWS Upton NY
SKYWARN Webpage at: www.erh.noaa.gov/er/okx/Skywarn/skywarn.html. If
you are planning to attend the BARA Hamfest in Westwood NJ on September
30 2006, please stop by and visit the Bergen County NJ SKYWARN Team
(www.bara.org). They will be able to provide you with more information
the SKYWARN Program.

September 16th 2006, which was coincidentally Amateur Radio Awareness
Day 2006, dawned as a damp and cool morning across NNJ as Amateur Radio
operators from throughout the area hit the road as early as 6:00 AM for
the drive towards Morristown NJ to setup radio communications support
for the 2006 MS-100 Bike Tour. As has been the case for many years now,
operators from all parts of the NNJ area come out in support of this
annual Multiple Sclerosis Society fundraiser. With 2006 being no
exception to this now well-established rule, support was once again in
place from several ARES groups as well as from several area Radio Clubs
and individuals.

Amateur Radio Communications Coordinators and event Net Control
Operators, Kathy Thee (KT2F) and Karl Fenton (N2OYU) reported that on
Saturday there were operators on the air at both the Start And Finish
lines, as well as at the 4 Rest Stops along the 50 plus mile course, in
6 SAG vehicles (when it became evident that there were no drivers for
these vans, the assigned amateur radio operators stepped up and
preformed double duty as both drivers and communicators, again showing
that ?when all else fails? amateur radio is there). Amateur Radio
operators also were in place throughout the event as communications
shadows for the MS-100 Event Leader, the event Safety Officer and on
course EMTs.

On Sunday, with several operators returning for a second duty shift,
along with several new arrivals, communications support was once again
out in force with full coverage again in place for the days Start and
Finish lines, 4 Rest Stops, 5 SAGs, as well as the all important Event
Leader, Safety Officer and EMTs.
The ride, as well as its communications, flowed smoothly throughout the
entire event with updates on the riders? progress coming in from the
various Rest Stops as well from throughout the course. Thanks to the
resource of amateur radio, any rider in need of mechanical or physical
assistance was quickly handled with an appropriate response of
available resources.

Participants in the School Club Roundup (SCR) have asked to have an on
air event earlier in the school year. In response, this year, for the
first time in 20 years, the School Club Roundup will have a Fall
session. It will run during the third week of October from 16-20. This
is the week before the JOTA (Jamboree On The Air). It was announced in
September QST pages 103-4. The rules are the same as last February,
except for dates, which can be found in January 2006 QST and the
arrl.org web site.

This can be a good opportunity to attract new hams by setting up and/or
assisting with operation of a demonstration or existing station at a
school. Demo stations have been arranged by teachers, parents,
grandparents, etc. They have been set up in classrooms, lobbies,
libraries, parking lots, etc. Often the weather in February is a
challenge. Perhaps October will be milder.

===> LIMARC – Levittown, LI Library display.

LIMARC has a prominent display at the Levittown, LI Library running
through the month of September.

ARES and RACES operators needed.
Please consider joining your local ARES and/or RACES group. The
commitments to served agencies such as Offices of Emergency Management
(OEM), Fire Emergency Operations Centers (EOC), American Red Cross,
Salvation Army, and others may quickly exhaust our supply of available
operators. If you think you can just walk in when an emergency arises,
you could be left out. Today, it is vital to have proper credentials.
Getting them during an emergency will, at the very least, cause
delays.

73 de Lew, N2RQ

===> UFT Ham Radio Course for UFT Retirees?

The UFT Si Beagle program has a minimum enrollment requirement of 10.
I have been lobbying to teach a license course, so far unsuccessfully.
The coordinator for programs in Nassau County is Betty
Silver-Rappaport. She has been very excited about the “new” ham radio.
She helped me write a blurb and scheduled a single session seminar we
called “Ham Radio Yesterday and Today”. It is NF-809. The coupon for
registration is attached and is also available at the UFT.org web site.
As of last week, the registration was stuck at 8. We need at least
two more to have it run. There is room for 50. The date is Monday,
November 20. The time is 10AM-noon. Location is Freeport library.

The program is open to all UFT retirees and spouses and AFT, NYSUT and
PSC retirees. UFT members have a fee of $2. Members of other locals
pay an additional $2 or a total of $4.

My hope is that we can get the seminar to run and then get some to sign
up for license classes.

The faster we get some signed up the better. It may get cancelled as
early as this week.

New topic. Thanks to Diane, K2DO, LIMARC has a display in the
Levittown Library for the month of September. This year’s display was
done by WB2HPI, WB2IJY and N2RQ since Diane had a conflict in schedule.
It is by the check out desk. Everyone checking out from the library
passes the display.

Comments

Hudson Division Beacon – September 2006 — No Comments

Looking For Division Archives

At a recent hamfest I found a program from the 1982 Hudson Division
Convention. Over the past few years I’ve found only one or two items
of note regarding our Division and its’ history. It made me realize
that there was no central repository for items of a historical nature
that dealt specifically with the Hudson Division. There appears to be
a dearth of these materials.
There have been conventions, both Division and National, in the Hudson
Division going back to the 1930s, clubs galore with their own QSL
cards, newsletters that were sent to members by Division leadership,
and so forth. So before it’s too late, and while we still have
members who have squirreled away copies of these materials in filing
cabinets or basement boxes, I am reaching out to the Division and
asking that you consider one of two things. First, please consider
parting with these materials and letting me take them. I’ll scan
them, put them up on the Division website to share with the members,
and then pass them on to succeeding Directors as the keepers of our
story.
If you would prefer not to part with them, then please consider
scanning the items for placing on the website. Items would include:
Convention programs, Director newsletters (yes, they used to be printed
and mailed), Club QSL cards, QSL cards of operators of note, pins,
badges, etc., etc.
Please let me know what you have